It has long been considered the world's oldest temple and even thought by some to be the site of the Garden of Eden.

But a scientist has claimed that the Gobekli Tepe stones in Turkey,
built in 9,000 BC and 6,500 years older than Stonehenge, could instead
be a giant home 'built for men not gods'.

Ted Banning, a professor at the University of Toronto, has branded it
'one of the world's biggest garbage dumps,' with piles of animal bones,
tools and charcoal found there proving that it was an ancient home
rather than a religious site.

When
excavation started at Gobekli Tepe in southern Turkey in 1994,
archaeologists were sure it was a temple and largely uninhabited.

Remarkably it was deliberately buried under thousands of tonnes of soil
and only a small amount of the 20-acre area has been excavated since its
discovery.

The incredible site was put up long before humans mastered language or
skills like pottery or metal work, making it one of the true wonders of
the world pre-dating any previously discovered religious site by 1,000
years.

Professor Banning has shaken up the theory behind its construction,
not questioning its age, but saying that rubbish surrounding the
intricately carved giant stones, which are up to five metres high and
weigh 16 tonnes, prove it was a settlement.

It is possible that a giant roof could have been placed on top of the
giant pillars, which are engraved with snakes, scorpions, foxes, and
other animals.

To date, around 45 of these stones have been dug out - they are arranged in circles from five to ten yards across.